Category Archives: The CoffeeBoys

The Harsh Facts…

  Sometimes I worry that I’m too negative about the difficulties of running great cafés and coffee shops but our recent research, in conjunction with Caffé Culture, as well as a meeting last week made me realise just how important this message continues to be.   At this meeting a client of mine described how… Read More »

The story of two coffee shops – which one are you?

I was working in a small provincial town recently and spoke to the owners of two coffee shops approximately thirty yards apart.  They were on the usual, slightly decimated, High Street that can be found in almost any town in the UK.  Lots of “To Let” signs and empty stores. In between them was a… Read More »

Two types of coffee shop owner/manager… which are you?

Recently I’ve been working with a lot of very successful operators… Recently I’ve been talking to a lot of operators who are really struggling… Today I realised that, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, these two groups thought entirely differently about one key factor… They way they think about the customers in relation to the success or failure of… Read More »

UK Coffee Leader Summit Report – Part One

Hugh and I were kindly invited by Jeffery Young of Allegra Strategies to attend the UK Coffee Leader Summit on the day previous to Caffe Culture.  These events are always useful from a networking perspective (even though that’s generally an expression that puts the fear of god into me) but there was some great content… Read More »

Tales from New York 1 – How well do YOU target YOUR customers?

I’m just back from nearly three weeks in the US and spent considerable time in New York – it is, as ever, just about the most stimulating city on the planet. I saw some amazing retailing and some inspirational restaurants but I have to say the quality of the coffee bars (that I saw anyway)… Read More »

So what?

Why are you doing what you do? What is the outcome? What are you slogging away day to day for? Most people simply can’t answer these questions within their business. You must be able to clearly state what it is that you want out of the business in an effort to properly move towards that.… Read More »